diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index da442c20b7f..3f6f5456a1b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 # /conf/
 /conf/conf.xml
 /conf/conf.xml.20*
+/conf/conf_personal.xml.20*
 /conf/control_panel.xml
 /conf/%gconf.xml
 /conf/maps_data/*
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b845818f72d..b46b46b1782 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ update_google_version:
 
 conf: conf/conf.xml conf/control_panel.xml conf/maps.xml
 
-conf/%.xml :conf/%.xml.example
+conf/%.xml :conf/%_example.xml
 	[ -L $@ ] || [ -f $@ ] || cp $< $@
 
 
@@ -294,7 +294,7 @@ ab_clean:
 
 replace_current_conf_xml:
 	test conf/conf.xml && mv conf/conf.xml conf/conf.xml.backup.$(BUILD_DATETIME)
-	cp conf/tests_conf.xml conf/conf.xml
+	cp conf/conf_tests.xml conf/conf.xml
 
 restore_conf_xml:
 	test conf/conf.xml.backup.$(BUILD_DATETIME) && mv conf/conf.xml.backup.$(BUILD_DATETIME) conf/conf.xml
diff --git a/conf/conf.xml.example b/conf/conf_example.xml
similarity index 100%
rename from conf/conf.xml.example
rename to conf/conf_example.xml
diff --git a/conf/tests_conf.xml b/conf/conf_tests.xml
similarity index 100%
rename from conf/tests_conf.xml
rename to conf/conf_tests.xml
diff --git a/conf/conf.xml.tri b/conf/conf_tri.xml
similarity index 100%
rename from conf/conf.xml.tri
rename to conf/conf_tri.xml
diff --git a/conf/control_panel.xml.example b/conf/control_panel_example.xml
similarity index 100%
rename from conf/control_panel.xml.example
rename to conf/control_panel_example.xml
diff --git a/conf/maps.xml.example b/conf/maps_example.xml
similarity index 100%
rename from conf/maps.xml.example
rename to conf/maps_example.xml
diff --git a/select_conf.py b/select_conf.py
index 56fcf684c14..08e91c004a5 100755
--- a/select_conf.py
+++ b/select_conf.py
@@ -52,8 +52,8 @@ def find_conf_files(self):
 
         conf_files = []
 
-        pattern = "*conf.xml*"
-        backup_pattern = "conf.xml.*2[0-9][0-9][0-9]-[01][0-9]-[0-3][0-9]_*"
+        pattern = "conf[._-]*xml*"
+        backup_pattern = "conf[._-]*xml.20[0-9][0-9]-[01][0-9]-[0-3][0-9]_*"
         excludes = ["%gconf.xml"]
 
         for path, subdirs, files in os.walk(self.conf_dir):
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ def __init__(self):
         self.paparazzi_home = os.getenv("PAPARAZZI_HOME", os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
         self.conf_dir = os.path.join(self.paparazzi_home, "conf")
         self.conf_xml = os.path.join(self.conf_dir, "conf.xml")
-        self.conf_personal_name = "conf.xml.personal"
+        self.conf_personal_name = "conf_personal.xml"
         self.conf_personal = os.path.join(self.conf_dir, self.conf_personal_name)
 
         self.exclude_backups = True
diff --git a/tests/examples/01_compile_all_test_targets.t b/tests/examples/01_compile_all_test_targets.t
index f18feddaa5a..03bab305bf4 100644
--- a/tests/examples/01_compile_all_test_targets.t
+++ b/tests/examples/01_compile_all_test_targets.t
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ use Data::Dumper;
 use Config;
 
 $|++;
-my $examples = XMLin("$ENV{'PAPARAZZI_SRC'}/conf/tests_conf.xml");
+my $examples = XMLin("$ENV{'PAPARAZZI_SRC'}/conf/conf_tests.xml");
 
 use Data::Dumper;